To Enrich Your Child's Life.
Simple child-rearing tips come in handy whether you're just casting for new and exciting directions in child care or you're plain stumped. Here, in this blog, you'll find tonnes of them for children of all ages toddlers, pre-schoolers, school kids, pre-teens, teenagers, and even young adults. If you apply at least a handful of the hundred ideas I have here for you, I'll pat myself on the back. Of course, you could do that too by letting me know how it's going.

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Friday, January 15

Hobby activities for young children are a great way to keep them occupied fruitfully, a way of creatively filling those gaps in which they may whine I'm bored. Hobby activities are what fills those long rainy days, those snow-bound winters, or even blistering hot summer days. That's Tip No. 6 for you and it has to be seen as separate from craft and art, music, sport, and fitness.

All you have to do is get them interested in the pursuit of one of many simple hobbies for kids and they'll take it from there. Hobby activities do not have to be state-of-the-art affairs. Although collecting matchbox pictures may not be in vogue any more, there are other affordable hobbies that are equally fun.

When choosing hobby activities for your children you'd do well to make sure that,

They are not terribly expensive to pursue

It is something a young child can take an interest in and keep up

It is a simple activity to begin with

It can be developed as the child grows and continue to excite him

It can be confined to her spare time and not overtake study and other activities

You spare at least some time to show an interest in her hobby

It can be pursued independently by your child without needing you to chaperone

It can be done at home and does not require your chauffeuring

Kids hobbies used to be a normal part of growing up in the good old days. Think baseball cards, stamp, coin collection, or even butterfly collection. But these days even young children don't seem to have the time to spare for a hobby.

However, when you get down to brass tacks what exactly is it that keeps your young kids busy? Television? Video games? Long phone conversations, perhaps? Do you even know? Well, you'll certainly have more of an idea of what they are up to in their spare time if you introduced them to a big, fat hobby when you had a chance; that is in their early formative years.

A hobby is an activity you pursue for sheer enjoyment and personal satisfaction. Starting your child on one is one of the greatest gifts you can bestow on her. As a parent or chief caregiver, you are the best person to figure out where your child's interests lie. Is she a collector of stuff, clever with her fingers, great at jigsaws, a book lover?

Kids hobby activities could begin with simple stuff like collecting rocks, pebbles, or sea-shells. It could grow into sorting and learning more about the different types. Then there's a botanical version where you give him an old dictionary in which he can press leaves and flowers to dry. Soon he'll have hundreds of them and of course, ultimately learn all about it and grow up to be an expert. And to think it all started as a childhood hobby.

Tuesday, January 12

Learn songs along with your kids and sing out loud with them for the sheer pleasure of it. That's Tip No. 5 for you. This is not to be confused with learning music as in a musical instrument. You've probably noticed how uninhibited kids are at singing when they are really young. Some carry on, but others begin to get very self-conscious to the point that they stop entirely. This can be for any number of reasons;

Loss of front teeth

Extremely shy nature

Sarcasm, real or imagined

Lack of encouragement

May be it is the loss of teeth when their speech is often characterised by lisping which causes a huge amount of attention to be focussed on them whenever they open their mouths. Forget singing, some kids even try to talk as little as possible to avoid the loud exclamations of cho chweet this invites.

Sunday, January 10

Learning a musical instrument is a decision often left to the child to stumble upon or a school music program to enforce at random. So, here's Tip No. 4. Encourage your child to learn to play at least one musical instrument. Introduce your child to music as early as you possibly can, yes, that's right, think womb, may be even conception. Point is, the earlier the better

Thursday, January 7

Fitness and kids often get mixed up with other apparently similar issues such as kids and sports and games. So, let me clarify at the outset as we go on to my Tip No.3 which is One Fitness Exercise for your child. Fitness for kids should ideally be seen as separate from these other things for the following reasons

• Some kids might hate sports and games but find fitness a bearable idea.

Tuesday, January 5

Kids and sports can become quite a passionate affair for some parents while others consider sports simply barbaric. We need to stop right there and that's because we're right now at the verge of committing that horrible crime most often associated with kids and sports—what parents want!

Kid's sports and parents should ideally be kept apart and not allowed to interfere with each other. Parental interference in kid's sporting fields has risen to such ridiculous heights that I remember reading about a soccer mom sporting a rifle at her children's games, as if that 4WD is not dangerous enough. Well, this post is not about soccer moms gone round the bend, but about the importance of sports for children.

It would be a good idea to encourage your kids to learn and master at least one sport. The choices are mind boggling. Pick from ball games such as football, baseball, basketball, netball, softball, and then there's hockey, tennis, badminton, bowling, and more.

Monday, January 4

Kids and art is my tip No. 1and yes, I intend to begin with what is perhaps the simplest of them all. Crafts and arts for children normally bring to mind a box of gaily coloured crayons and a dozen colouring books. Okay, that's as good a place as any to start I guess, but surely you can do better as your child gets bored with that same old same old.

Photograph courtesy cohdra-morguefile.com

Kids craft and art really means much more than a box of crayola. My idea is to bring out the kernel of tremendous potential in the forgotten things that used to be part of growing up not so long ago. Crafts and art for children have come a long way and there's something to suit kids of even the weirdest temperaments.